Slowly but surely

I'm way, way, behind on all kinds of things. Posting here, for one.

But I'm trying to catch up, and slowly but surely I'm making progress.

For the moment, I want to respond to some comments left here, and decided it would be easiest to do that in one post rather than hope that people see my reply back in the archives of the blog.

So with apologies for the delay, I want to reply

to Mike, who is now already down in San Diego (and I hope you are enjoying that lovely city!), I can only hope you've already gone to Thornton's Irish Pub in nearby El Cajon and discovered that they have lots of parking, great entertainment, and wonderful food.

to Joyce, I can think of few ways to better waste time than 30 minutes of icanhascheezburger.com -- laughter is the best medicine, as they say.

to Louise, yes -- if you had told me a few years ago that I would be a big fan of an alligator, I don't think I'd have believed you. There you have it.

to Sharon, with thanks for asking, yes, Bloodlines is the next Irene Kelly book. Kidnapped after that. You can see the list of books in order on my Web site. The books with numbers as titles (Nine and Eighteen) are the only two not related to the series, although Eighteen (in some booksellers computers as 18) has two Irene short stories in it.

to Bill, thank you! I'm so glad you liked Kidnapped! I appreciate your taking the time to let me know -- hearing kind words from readers helps me through the days when I think my keyboard could be put to better use.

to Elizabeth, thank you. No need to feel guilt over the pleasure, though! ;-)
I can't really help people individually with their manuscripts or research problems -- I'm writing my own books, running the Crime Lab Project and the Crime Lab Project Foundation, and busy in other ways as well. You didn't tell me the nature of your questions, but if they are about writing a mystery, start with the MWA Handbook, Writing Mysteries.
If you can attend Sisters in Crime's Forensic University of St. Louis, go! It's a great opportunity. I'll be there, and that would be a great place to catch me to ask specific questions. I'll also be at the Surrey International Writers Conference. That's another good place to ask questions.
If you can't go to those events, and your questions are about police procedure, get Lee Lofland's new book. Questions about forensic science, read Doug Lyle's Forensics for Dummies and his new book, Forensics and Fiction. He also has a good course available on DVD. Hope this helps -- best of luck!


Photo of tortoise above used courtesy of bigal101 (Allan Lee), through morguefile.com